Who wants us to be illiterate?

Disclaimer : I'm not an expert on this matter, but I can't help expressing my own views in this, because if I ever try to turn my thoughts away from it, I'll be doing injustice to me; if I don't express my views, it is even more injustice to me. Out of the 25 years of my life, I've been a student for the past 22 years.
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My motivation comes from latest news about the impossible cut offs for admission set by some universities and about the prospect of implementing a common syllabus in Tamil Nadu. I'm not going into the technical details about the news, but I'm going to write on what I feel about the matter.

First the cut off thing. Universities set conditions that a student should have scored 100% or near 100%marks in plus two examination, to be admitted for degree courses. Excuse: "It is to select the best students". So isn't atleast above 90% a good mark? Or , are the students who score below 90% dumb? So, doesn't the hard work of a student who has worked hard to score near 90% or above 95% have no value? What is this? Is the trend going to be so that, in future you've to score 200% to get an admission in the so called universities or places which are "hi-fi" ?

Isn't it a renewal of cast system in one way? I mean the society is already divided drastically by economic standard, then by standards like those who are "stylish" and "simpleton". Then again according to those who do "highly paid white collar jobs" and "lowly paid mean jobs". Education was supposed to be a divine thing. And lately it has also become a criteria for diving people! 

As far as I can remember, the division of students who study in "English medium" and "regional medium" has always been there. And then even in an English medium class, those who were "below average,average, above average and brilliant" were there. (Along with the general belief that all regional medium students are poor quality students! I don't know the origin of this belief, but I'm sorry to say that many of the very brilliant people I know have studied in regional mediums during their schooling.)

To be continued.......